Overdoing your house for your neighborhood

[je55]

How much of an ass am I? Granite in place of Ikea laminate, new backsplash, in a home already too nice for the neighborhood? Just refi'd to a 15 year

after realizing $200 more in mortgage payments, we get about $700 more going towards equity each month (sorry takes a few reads to get what I'm going for)

[mrsjuleshs]

In our neighborhood upgrading the flooring and light fixtures, etc is about as much we can do without impacting our cost vs. return when selling. That said, we did add a kitchen island and we are looking to replace counter tops and shower surrounds. I am contemplating adding a second sink vs. the vanity area. DD has been begging for a pool but she goes to college in 5 years so even though our backyard is plenty big, I can't justify the cost.

[Deleted]

If you plan to stay there long term than do whatever you want to the house --- if you are looking for a return on the sale of your home I would second think things like that.

[WOT?*]

Less of an ass than I am because I'm doing quartz countertop and tile backsplash in an area of tile countertops and no backsplashes. Plus we repainted our house. And we're doing built-ins in the office and the family room and possibly replacing the kitchen cabinets (or refacing them) and at some point redoing our landscaping and master bath.

We're obviously staying put much longer than we thought we were going to be here. I'd suggest overimproving only if you plan on staying there - for yourself not for the market. And expect to eat a huge chunk of what was spent, far less than average.

[ssmjlm]

Oct 4, 2012 2:18:30 GMT -5 @switzerland said:

If you plan to stay there long term than do whatever you want to the house --- if you are looking for a return on the sale of your home I would second think things like that.

This. Our neighborhood is a mix of ranchers with original owners and 2 stories with younger owners.

We're improving for resale in the hope another young couple comes along in a few years and wants a move-in ready starter-ish home.

Granite would be overkill for our price point though.

[spankswife]

We are in the exact same boat (and underwater). We vowed to stop putting (unnecessary) money into our house for a while, but we just refi-ed into a 15 yr, and decided to stay for a while, so we are back to wanting to upgrade and make it how we want.

If you think you will be there for more than 5 yrs, closer to 10, I say go for it. It is your home, and you might as well enjoy it, with in reason. Granite counters - yes!

[chessie]

We tend to have to watch as well. Mostly older, middle aged families that don't update their homes. Mostly early 1900's and you can tell how damaged they are from the outside..been inside quite a bit and when we do the counter we will stay away from granite there are nice laminates on the market now though that look way better then they did in the 70's which we will use, another option we are considering is concrete and use the dye kits. If this was my house to stay forever it be stainless steel for sure, granite scratches.

[Deleted]

Oct 4, 2012 4:14:35 GMT -5 WOT?* said:

Less of an ass than I am because I'm doing quartz countertop and tile backsplash in an area of tile countertops and no backsplashes. Plus we repainted our house. And we're doing built-ins in the office and the family room and possibly replacing the kitchen cabinets (or refacing them) and at some point redoing our landscaping and master bath.

We're obviously staying put much longer than we thought we were going to be here. I'd suggest overimproving only if you plan on staying there - for yourself not for the market. And expect to eat a huge chunk of what was spent, far less than average.

This is us. We plan to stay here for at least 15-20 years if not forever.

[dancingirl21]

Our neighborhood is mostly late 70's two stories. Many of them are fairly updated, but probably not quite as much as ours. We bought in July of 2011. Everything was ripped down to the studs and subfloors. We put in all hardwood, granite in kitchen and all bathrooms, stainless, upgraded cabinets, fresh paint - basically everything. Since then, we've put on a new roof, replaced the furnace, AC, lots of duct work, all brand new windows, and completely re-did the landscaping.

But this type of home will sell quickly in our Chicago suburb, so we're not too worried about it. If we tried to sell now, we wouldn't make up the amount of money we have dumped into it, but we need to be happy living there too.

This is not our forever home, but more like 10-15 years. If you plan to stay for awhile, I say make the changes you want.

[je55]

Wow, I'm actually surprised by the responses here. We looked at it as "we are going to be here for a while and we might as well enjoy it." Glad to hear you all agree.

As far as going for the granite, we got a hell of a deal. The "level one" that we were planning to go with was actually cheaper than a lot of the laminate we considered before pulling the trigger. Then we upgraded to "level three." Oh our champagne tastes . . .